To, July 17, 2025
1 Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena
Honorable LG, Delhi Civil Lines,
New Delhi-110054
2 Smt. Rekha Gupta
Honorable Chief Minister, Delhi
3rd level, Delhi Secretariat, I.P. Estate,
New Delhi-110002
3 Shri N. Saravana Kumar I.A.S.
Vice- Chairman, Delhi Development Authority (DDA),
4 Shri Pravesh Sahib Singh
Honorable Minister for Irrigation & Flood Control, Water
Room No. 607, 6th floor, A-Wing, Delhi Secretariat, IP Estate,
New Delhi-110002
5 Shri Rajeev Kumar Mital
Director General,
National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)
6 Shri Bharat Kumar Sharma
Member Secretary,
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB),
Parivesh Bhawan, East Arjun Nagar,
Delhi-110032
Subject: Regarding persistent abuse and encroachment of Yamuna floodplain (eastern bank) downstream Wazirabad Barrage, Delhi
Based on a ground visit to Eastern Bank of Yamuna floodplain downstream Wazirabad Barrage on July 15, 2025, I have found several activities amounting to serious abuse and encroachments of floodplain land there. Here I share a short descriptive report along with supporting photos with GPS location links and Google maps. I also request you, kindly take urgent corrective measures and ensure effective protection of floodplain land there.
1 New Road Cutting Through Floodplain: A new about 5 km long and about 6-meter-wide road dissecting floodplain from Wazirabad crematoria to Eastern Embankment near Usmanpur village has been created. It passes through Metro Bridge, Signature Bridge and Metro Casting yard facility.
The road has recently been raised by bitumen paving works and widened from earlier single to double lane. The bitumen work has considerably increased the height of the road disconnecting the floodplain along its alignment. Additionally, both sides of the road are paved with cement blocks and there seems to be preparation to install electricity poles along the road at several places. For more than 1 km the road alignment runs parallel to the river channel at a distance of about 150 m. The road work has disconnected the Yamuna’s old flowing channel.
As per locals, the road was created to facilitate access to Delhi Metro casting yard and construction of Metro and Signature bridges. Both the bridges have been built. Moreover, the Eastern Embankment cum Road has already been doubled in recent years. Work on a double lane elevated road over the Eastern Embankment is also going on.
Hence, the road cutting through the floodplain has already fulfilled its purpose. Better connectivity to reach Wazirabad has been created. So, the land used for the road must be restored back to the Yamuna floodplain by dismantling it at the earliest. Not doing so, will certainly encourage further abuse and encroachment of floodplain areas there.
2 Metro Casting Yard: Likewise, the Metro casting yard facility occupying more than 13 acres of Yamuna floodplain for the past many years, must be removed and floodplain must be restored by removing the thick concrete layer and huge amount of concrete dumped there by the facility manager, at the earliest. The large part of floodplain around the casting yard has already been used for compensatory plantation work. So, the casting yard land must be restored as a native floodplain vegetation and not for the further compensatory plantation work which has adverse ecological and hydrological impacts on the river floodplain.
3 Floodplain opposite Kartar Nagar: About 50 acres of low-lying floodplain along Eastern Embankment opposite Kartar Nagar has gradually been reclaimed by dumping huge amounts of soil there during the past many years turning it into a parking and crowd gathering site. Google Earth imagery suggests the dumping and levelling continued recently covering an additional about 20 acres of floodplain there. The dumping has been affecting a nearby water body part of DDA’s Vansthali project. If preventive steps are not taken the entire land parcel will be reclaimed soon.
4 Floodplain along Wazirabad Road: Construction waste is being dumped along the road before it joins the Eastern Embankment at Khajuri Chowk. At places it has been levelled and concretized illegally.
5 Metro Bridge: There is still a huge amount of construction debris left beneath the Metro bridge right upto the river bank. The construction company is evading the responsibility of restoring the site back to floodplain and river to its original condition.
6 Silt Dump at Najafgarh Drain Mouth: A huge silt dump has been created on the western bank just before Najafgarh drain (Sahibi river) meets Yamuna. This must be removed before the flood spell in the river.
7 Signature Bridge: As per locals, the river section beneath the Signature bridge is easily crossable as it is full of construction debris left during construction of the bridge. This needs to be investigated and corrective actions should be taken accordingly.
8 No Use of Dredged Channel: A deep narrow dredged channel created last year has triggered riverbank erosion at places. Locals say occasional rise in river water level submerges the dredged channel and has made it a vulnerable spot for drowning deaths specially for the children who often venture into the river unaware of the dredged channel.
9 Solid Waste Dumping: The river bank right from the barrage is strewn of plastic waste. There are multiple spots in the floodplain also where solid waste, construction debris, concrete and even tar coal mixture is being dumped. There is no mechanism and monitoring in place to remove the dumped waste and prevent further dumping.
10 Nanaksar Gurudwara: In recent years, the Nanaksar Gurudwara seems to have created permanent structures by levelling and raising a large chunk of floodplain land there with enormous amounts of soil dumping. The facility covers over about 14 acres of floodplain land and has further expansion plans as the concerned departments have conveniently overlooked the violation.
11 Liquid Waste: Right downstream Wazirabad huge amounts of untreated effluent is being discharged into the river through two metal pipes. This issue has been raised several times in the past but in vain. There is no physical and technical monitoring happening to deter all these floodplain and river destructive activities.
12 Past Damages: The July 2023 floods have washed away all plantation work, artificial fish pond and other avoidable experiments carried out downstream Wazirabad barrage between 2022-23 resulting in wastage of public money worth lakhs.
All these activities are violative of many NGT orders and several of the government’s own rules. It shows the concerning and disappointing state of affairs of floodplain protection in the national capital. A ground inspection might reveal similar or worse violations taking place all along the floodplain stretch in Delhi.
One must remember that the Eastern part of the floodplain is lower than Western one and is submerged during every medium and high scale flood event. The continual abuse and encroachments of this part is destroying both the flood cushion and groundwater recharge potential it offers to the city.
Given the fact that the linear and cross-sectional infrastructure projects have already reduced flood carrying capacity of the floodplain downstream Wazirabad barrage, it is of utmost important to keep the remaining floodplain free from abuse and encroachment in the overall interest of the Yamuna River, environment and citizens of Delhi.
Hence, considering the seriousness of the issue, I humbly urge you to take corrective as well preventive actions against the points raised in this letter.
Yours Sincerely!
Bhim Singh Rawat
Associate Coordinator,
South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP)
SANDRP 
Check out this post… “Urgent appeal over rampant encroachment of Yamuna floodplain near Delhi’s Wazirabad barrage”. http://www.counterview.net/2025/07/urgent-appeal-over-rampant-encroachment.html
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